My Standards for Worship Musicians

(Little Italy, New York City)

Linda and I are in New York City teaching Presence-Driven Leadership with our beautiful friends of Faith Bible Church. What a great time we had last night with Greg and Linda Woo and their daughter Audrey!

This is from my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church. And, BTW, Linda and I are both musicians.

And, if you are interested, I'll be speaking at FBC Friday night on "How I Respond to Same-Sex Marriage."


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How important is musical skill in worship leading, or playing on a worship team? My answer is: not much. My standards for our worship musicians are these: 

1) You must be yourself a worshiper who seeks and loves God’s presence. [What sense does it make to guide people into spiritual terrain you are unfamiliar with?]

2) You must be able to play well enough so as not to distract people from worshiping. 

If your instrument playing is hideous, people will be drawn to the discordant carnage more than to God. On your instrument, be adequate. Take that part seriously. Get lessons and grow. 

As important as musicianship is, living a life of consistent, passionate, Christ-abiding is more important. Instrumental ability without a Christ-formed heart creates “performance,” without God-presence. This is important, because worship is all about God’s presence. 

Real worship is corporate God-directedness. Worship is movement within the temple of God. If the God-movement is not in the hearts of the worship leaders, great instrumental ability shuts the door to true adoration of God by sending the wrong message (“How Great Are Our Musicians").